What is your favorite series and why?

[LOKAI of CHERON]

BillJ wrote:

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I understand, I'm just getting nitpicky in my old age!

I don't know if it's been done, but a poll of all 30 seasons with the option to give a mark on, say, a ten scale, would be great. Then an overall aggregate would provide a definitive BBS "decison" on the favourite show! I'm not sure if this can actually be implemented here though?

[BruntFCA]

1-DS9
2-TNG
3-ENT
4-TOS-I don't like Shatner at all
5-VOY

[GalaxyX]

Star Grinch wrote:

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No need to interrogate the man on his personal likes and dislikes. You'll find the arguments rather circular given they're based on respective opinions.

I'll answer his questions as best as I can.

Practically every episode has a love interest for Captain Kirk. Usually it's the random alien women he meets.

Then there's other characterizations that are basically caricatures, like Chekov, and Scotty.

It seems also that every episode had to have a hand to hand fist fight with Kirk and a baddie, with that famous fight music behind them trumpeting along.

And a lot of the episode were just pure 60's cornball, like finding a planet full of mobsters, or a planet exactly like Earth but with children.

None of this is meant to put down the show BTW. I like it, and will enjoy the good stuff in it, even if "formulaic" stuff gets grating.

I won't, however, specifically put in an episode of TOS on my TV to watch. I will do this with my favorite TNG episodes though.

[JarodRussell]

GalaxyX wrote:

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Practically every episode has a love interest for Captain Kirk. Usually it's the random alien women he meets.

Then there's other characterizations that are basically caricatures, like Chekov, and Scotty.

It seems also that every episode had to have a hand to hand fist fight with Kirk and a baddie, with that famous fight music behind them trumpeting along.

And a lot of the episode were just pure 60's cornball, like finding a planet full of mobsters, or a planet exactly like Earth but with children.

That seems to be the general idea of what TOS is (and the idea the new film remake is built on), but if you actually watch all 79 episodes, it turns out this isn't the case at all. Except for the cornball. I personally can't watch one episode of the show without cringing. But that's just because the 60s science fiction really isn't my thing.

[Nerys Myk]

GalaxyX wrote:

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I'll answer his questions as best as I can.

Practically every episode has a love interest for Captain Kirk. Usually it's the random alien women he meets.

Then there's other characterizations that are basically caricatures, like Chekov, and Scotty.

It seems also that every episode had to have a hand to hand fist fight with Kirk and a baddie, with that famous fight music behind them trumpeting along.

And a lot of the episode were just pure 60's cornball, like finding a planet full of mobsters, or a planet exactly like Earth but with children.

None of this is meant to put down the show BTW. I like it, and will enjoy the good stuff in it, even if "formulaic" stuff gets grating.

I won't, however, specifically put in an episode of TOS on my TV to watch. I will do this with my favorite TNG episodes though.

Welcome to the 1960s.

Kirk was the romantic lead, of course he will meet and fall in love with women. Though, just glancing through Season One there are very few episodes where Kirk actually falls in love. Most of the time he was using his charms to attain a goal. Other times there's no "love interest" at all. I'd say COTEOF was the first time he fell in love. And that was with a human. Kirk's reputation as a lothario bagging alien women is exaggerated.

Didn't people on the other shows meet guest stars and fall love too? I recall Picard, Riker, Crusher and LaForge having one off romances.

At least Chekov and Scotty had that to play with. Think about the non entities like LaForge, Kim or Mayweather. I think Scotty was more than a caricature. He does more than get drunk and play the pipes.

Yeah it was an action adventure show, so there were fights. They did those on the other shows too. Did they use the classic fight theme for every fight? I don't recall that they did.

Your definition of "cornball" is odd. The mobsters were a result of cultural contamination. The children were actually hundreds of years old and the result of biological warfare.

The modern day shows simply shifted those type of plots to the holodeck. Where more often than not, something would go wrong.

[DalekJim]

TOS, TNG and DS9 are 3 of the best television series ever aired. Right now I'd class DS9 as my favourite. The one Trek series that fully seized it's potential. Excellent science-fiction and character drama.

[Xhiandra]

Since we all like to make lists:

1. TNG: best written series, likeable cast all around.
2. TOS: at the time it was brilliant, and some episodes still shine on to this day.
3. DS9(action): pew-pew!
4. ENT: had potential, but got cut short right when it was building up; best pilot ep of all; definetely grows on you.
5. VOY: inconsistent, cheesy, premise doesn't really work, most characters are either bland (Kim, Janeway) or annoying (Neelix, Kes, Chakotay, B'elana, Paris)... you know you've got a problem when the most interesting character is the emotionless Vulcan.
Very few stand-out episodes.
6. DS9(religious propaganda): as terrible as "7th heaven" at times, and that's saying a lot.

[The Mirrorball Man]

The original Star Trek is the only series I still enjoy without reservations. I think it stands the test of time much better than all the other series, is much more dynamic and imaginative and isn't bogged down by byzantine continuity and hackneyed storytelling conventions.

Deep Space 9 had a lot going for it, including a terrific cast and, from time to time, truly ambitious writing, but as I grow older I can't take it as seriously as I used to.

There are some nuggets of brilliance to be found in Enterprise, but they are few and far between.

I always hated Voyager and I can't watch The Next Generation anymore.

[Bry_Sinclair]

DS9, simply because it was epic

[Mysterion]

TOS. If for no other reason, none of the rest of it would have existed without it. It has a great blen of characters and storytelling. Doesn't get bogged down in a lot of the inertia of much of the later series.

DSN is a very close second for me. I think that it, especially in the later seasons, came closest of any of the other post-TOS Trek series to capturing the spirit of TOS.

[Brolan]

TOS. Kirk, Spock, and Bones. What else is there to say?

[Nerys Myk]

Brolan wrote:

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TOS. Kirk, Spock, and Bones. What else is there to say?

Scotty.

[Herkimer Jitty]

TNG

It's the stuff of my childhood, so I can't see it with anything but a rose-tinted VISOR. Lotta good memories of bonding with my pops over Next Gen episodes. As an adult, it's sort of a comfort food to me. The mac n' cheese of television, if you will.

[Galileo7]

Greg Cox wrote:

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I grew up on TOS, so it will be always be STAR TREK to me.

Agree, TOS.

My boyhood in the '70s was enhanced by TOS in reruns weekdays, TAS first-run on Saturday mornings and ultimately TMP on December 7, 1979.

[Greg Cox]

Hanukkah Jitty wrote:

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TNG

It's the stuff of my childhood, so I can't see it with anything but a rose-tinted VISOR. Lotta good memories of bonding with my pops over Next Gen episodes. As an adult, it's sort of a comfort food to me. The mac n' cheese of television, if you will.

I can see that. That's how I feel about TOS. My dad introduced me to the show way back in the sixties. I still remember watching "Arena" and "The Mantrap" and the rest with him . . . .